Potential Immortals page
Potential Immortals The Teacher The Teacher is a myth told among the Western Unclaimed People, of a strange, cheerful lady who appears in a settlement to do no more than teach. Her pedagogy skills are renowned; complex topics become simple and lessons that would take years take days instead. The Teacher has a knack for picking up the languages of the people; she has never been known to use a language other than that of the people she wishes to teach. For some reason the Teacher always teaches mathematics, calculus, physics, and astronomy first before moving on to the "useful" things. She claims to have a saying, "No matter who you talk to, mathematics is a fundamental language if you use the right symbols. It's the language of our universe! The universe made us, we may as well be nice enough to speak its language!" The Teacher seems to grasp advanced astrophysical concepts such as supernovae and passes this down to her students. In fact, the Teacher has given lessons on how to detect astrophysical phenomena that the people only dream of having the devices someday to prove (such as dark matter and subatomic particles). The Teacher also has a fondness for music and instruments, singing and playing all night long. She teaches them ways to write their music down, and this notation is oddly similar to that of the Inisfalli. The Teacher always leaves once she has given the people the lessons that she decides they need to do the most good in the world. None know of her immortality. Some of the Unclaimed believe that she is a deity due to her advanced knowledge, though this is quickly beaten and berated out of them by the humble Teacher. Regardless, most scholars believe the Teacher is a common knowledge deity or myth of some kind. Shelby's Opinion: I don't like it, and I don't care if it makes me sound like I want to be a special snowflake. I think we all are entitled to a unique character. Sure it's possible for people to separately come up with similar ideas. It doesn't matter. This idea is taken. Get a new one. Truest's Opinion: Keep it as is, maybe add a line that limits what pupils get told about astrophysical things. Like you'd teach everyone they're giant burning balls of gas, but until civilizations advance to a certain point, further details would be extraneous, lost, and beg for misconception. Otherwise in general, there will be overlap. What's going to keep each immortal a special snowflake in many cases is their unique approaches to the same things IE: Truest King and Faceless Emperor (both god kings, different ways of doing it) or the Truest King and Eternal Warrior (both devoted personal combatants, but different ways of doing it). Unicorn (author) follow-up opinion: The Teacher is very much focused on NOT having a nation, NOT being a goddess, and generally being a goofy and fun character. As a meta example (since we have to take this out anyway), she's a random encounter like Tom Bombadil. The Stargazer is a deity who leads a nation, the Teacher is a wanderer who happens to like teaching math and physics. Huge difference. The Eminent Scholar Quaesitiro, The Eternal Errant An immortal warrior and seeker of knowledge, Quaesitiro has never been one for rulership. Instead, he wanders the lands of Soi under a number of aliases, serving as a trusy sellsword or skilled if scatterbrained mentor to those he feels worthy of his tutelage. However, his time with any given pupil is short, for Quaesitiro suffers from an unusual condition: An unknown mental ailment that seems unique to him. The condition is a speculated to either be from past trauma, from witnessing horrors, duels, or the inability to cope with eternal life, and sits uneasily in the Knight's head. It sits quiet for long stretches, but when roused it surfaces to trouble the Errant, sending him into convulsions, followed by a violent fugue state. When he comes to, his mind is foggy and his memories scrambled.Often awakening amidst ruins or in the wilderness, Quaesitiro inevitably sets out to seek company and piece together his fragmented thoughts. The only consistent thing about his behavior is that he always has a trained bird, particularly an owl as his companion. When these creatures die he seeks another. Legends claim that these animals are somehow bonded to him and control his behavior in a way, possibly leading him to his purpose in the world. This makes the Strix's intentions unpredictable at best.